There are plans to extend the DLR to Thamesmead, but before TfL put that out to consultation, they considered everything from extending the Jubilee line to building new cable cars. Forty-two options were considered, and thanks to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, you can see just how unconventional some of the ideas suggested were.
Proposed extension (c) TfL
National Rail
- Extension from Plumstead to Thamesmead
- Extension from Plumstead to Belvedere via Thamesmead
Elizabeth line
- Extension from Abbey Wood to the east
- Extension from Custom House to Thamesmead
London Underground
- H&C line extension from Barking to Thamesmead
- H&C line extension from Barking to Abbey Wood via Thamesmead
- Jubilee line extension from North Greenwich to Thamesmead via Beckton Riverside
London Overground
- Extension from Barking Riverside to Abbey Wood
- Extension from Barking Riverside to Belvedere
- Extension from Barking Riverside to Woolwich
- Extension from Barking Riverside to Thamesmead
- Extension from Barking Riverside to Gallions Reach via Beckton
DLR
- Extension from Gallions Reach to Beckton Riverside
- Extension from Gallions Reach to Thamesmead
- Extension from Gallions Reach to Abbey Wood
- Extension from Gallions Reach to Belvedere via Thamesmead
- Extension from Gallions Reach to Barking, then to Abbey Wood/Belvedere
- Extension from Woolwich Arsenal to Thamesmead
- Extension from King George V to Thamesmead
- Extension from Gallions Reach to Dagenham Dock via Beckton and Barking Riverside
- Extension from Gallions Reach to Barking
Pedestrians
- A bridge between Beckton Riverside and Gallions Reach
Tram
- Link between Abbey Wood and Thamesmead
- Link between Abbey Wood and Gallions Reach via Thamesmead and cross-river link
- Link between Abbey Wood and Woolwich
Light Rail
- A light rail line between Gallions Reach and Beckton Riverside
- A light rail line between Abbey Wood and Thamesmead
- A light rail line between Abbey Wood and Gallions Reach via Thamesmead (inc river crossing)
Bus transit
- Link between Abbey Wood and Woolwich via Thamesmead
- Link between Abbey Wood to Gallions Reach via Woolwich and Thamesmead
- Link between Beckton Riverside and Custom House
Enhanced bus service
- Improved service within Thamemead
- Improved service to serve Beckton Riverside
- Bus only river crossing between Thamesmead and Gallions Reach
River Bus
- Extend riverbus RB1 to Thamesmead and Gallions Reach
- Thamesmead to Barking Riverside shuttle
Cable Car
- A new dangleway between Thamesmead and Gallions Reach
- A new dangleway between Thamesmead and Barking Riverside
Personal Rapid Transit (similar to Heathrow Pods)
- PRT within Thamesmead
- PRT within Beckton Riverside
In a throwback to the past, TfL even looked at whether a car-based development would be an option.
All of the options were tested against a number of criteria, including cost-to-benefit ratio, fitting in with the Mayor’s transport policies, commercial viability, passenger capacity, land acquisition, housing impact, and so forth.
A score was allocated to each of the options to determine which of the ideas for transport upgrades was worth considering. At this stage, most of the ideas above were dropped as simply not realistic enough to meet the requirements.
Ten viable options emerged:
- DLR extension from Gallions Reach to Beckton Riverside
- DLR extension from Gallions Reach to Thamesmead
- DLR extension from Gallions Reach to Abbey Wood
- DLR extension from Gallions Reach to Belvedere via Thamesmead
- DLR extension from Gallions Reach to Barking, then to Abbey Wood/Belvedere
- Bus transit between Abbey Wood and Woolwich via Thamesmead
- Overground extension from Barking Riverside to Abbey Wood
- Overground extension from Barking Riverside to Woolwich
- Tram link between Abbey Wood and Gallions Reach via Thamesmead and cross-river link
- Jubilee line extension from North Greenwich to Thamesmead via Beckton Riverside
However, the DLR extension from Gallions Reach to Thamesmead not only scored the highest but was also the only option to score high in both the objective and viability benchmarks.
The main reason for rejecting the heavy rail extensions was the cost of building the lines, but adding new spurs to the rail or tube would have meant a more fragmented service elsewhere. The London Overground extensions scored better in terms of end benefits but were scored poorly in value as they are a very expensive way of bringing public transport to Thamesmead.
The DLR options looked more promising in terms of cost to benefit — and while extending the Woolwich line to Thamemead avoided a new tunnel, it added a lot more complexity around the Woolwich station and would have increased passengers on an already busy branch of the service.
The bus, tram, and light rail options were considered affordable, but they do not deliver the capacity needed in the long term, although a rapid bus link between Woolwich and Thamesmead will be provided in the short term.
The shortlist was subject to more analysis, ranging from how the transport option would fit into an area to its value for money, affordability, local support, impact on car use, and, importantly, how realistic it was that the scheme could be delivered.
For example, from a transport perspective, extending the DLR through Thamesmead to Abbey Wood sounds like a very good idea, which it would be, except that the added construction costs wouldn’t be offset by any added uplift in the number of houses that could be built in Thamesmead, so the cost of the extension per household served is about a third more expensive than stopping at Thamesmead.
However, while extending the DLR beyond Thamesmead to Belvedere wouldn’t be expected to add any extra houses to Thamesmead either, it’s so cheap (£1.15-1.55 billion vs £1.2-£1.6 billion) that it’s almost a rounding error in the total project cost. It could be argued that it should be considered for inclusion in the plans upfront just because it would be so much more affordable to bolt it on today than to add it later.
However, the London Overground extensions all flash red in most of the scores for poor value and high costs. The only green score they get is public approval. Interestingly, the Overground extension also performs far worse than any other options in terms of climate change impact over a 60-year life, as it’s expected to reduce car use by less than any other idea they looked at.
Countering that, the DLR extension options were considered to reduce road use by such a large degree that they ended up being carbon-negative over the 60-year timeframe usually used to calculate public transport upgrade impacts.
There’s a large amount of data underpinning the decisions and the charts in the FOI are extensive, as they need to be when planning to spend the sort of money being talked about.
The core factor here is that each option is tested and reviewed. So when people exclaim on social media that they can’t believe that X isn’t being done when it’s so obviously better, quite often, it is looked at and rejected, and for good reason.
All decisions are compromises, but just because an option would offer a better transport network doesn’t actually mean it’s the best option when you weigh the cost and difficulties of building it. That’s how TfL concluded that a DLR extension from Gallions Reach to Thamemead via Beckton Riverside was the option to pursue.
The consultation closes on Monday 18th March 2024 and you can read the details and respond here.
Proposed extension (c) TfL
What previous attempts have TfL (and its predecessors) made to get transport links into Thamesmead? I’m aware one iteration of the Fleet line extension in the 70s was to go this way, which was dropped, but were there any others?
Compare and contrast that to Beckton Riverside, where the new Overground station was a condition that it got built, and for a while it was/is overpowered for the area that it’s serving. A cynic would say that this latest plan has popped up because Thamesmead is being redeveloped, and the private developer of the scheme has threatened to terminate their involvement if nothing happens.
There was a plan in the 1960s for a new station on the mainline railway half-way between Plumstead and Abbey Wood – but that’s all — as the car was seen as the future then.
Andy: I think you are confusing Beckton Riverside with Barking Riverside?
No monorail?
TfL have built monorails to Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Haverbrook
They didn’t consider extending the DLR from Gallions Reach, through Beckton Riverside, to Barking and then down to Thamesmead?
The full list is in the article.
Sorry I meant Barking Riverside.
I saw this one in the list only that comes close to that “Extension from Gallions Reach to Barking, then to Abbey Wood/Belvedere”
Is the Barking there, actually Barking Riverside? I also can’t see one that would take the DLR between Barking Riverside and Thamesmeade, which would have the advantage of more cheaply/feasibly linking Thamesmeade to the Overground
Yeah i thought this would be the best bet – as it provides alternative travel towards central london/canary wharf without overcrowding an already busy District line/overground.
Also provides better options for development with expanded barking riverside builds and whatnot
Seems to me a missed opportunity to not include the housing potential in Belvedere as an objective. I guess the Thamesmead area are more advanced in terms of a masterplan and phased delivery plan.
I guess the Southern Outflow Sewer that runs from Plumstead station to Thamesmede makes any rail route that follows that path very problematic.
The Northern one is tangled around the East Cross Route (A12), rivers, canals, the Overground, the East Anglia main line, the District Line but the DLR studiously avoided it as presumably you don’t want to build your light rail over more than half of London’s effluent!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Greenway_RDT – the Northern Outflow is called The Greenway!
I always wondered why the DLR arrived at Woolwich Arsenal facing the wrong way to extend east to Thamesmead. Just seemed done deliberately to prevent any extension.
Having the station face the other way would have meant a much longer (and hence expensive) tunnel, and tunnelling under the centre of Woolwich town centre would have added substantially to the mitigation costs.
No need for conspiracy theories thank you.
I’ve commented on the consultation but here’s my two pennies worth. The DLR as presented isn’t all that useful for much of Thamesmead and having read this FoI I’m not in agreement as to TfL’s statement on reducing car usage. Their proposed DLR route is restrictive in what it serves and car usage to those sites (pretty much Beckton and Excel Centre) would be minimal. What they claim about an extension to Belvedere is also rather unlikely. It won’t be cheap and will certainly be intrusive as it heads through existing communities across Thamesmead then into Belvedere. I’d go for a light rail solution which would be far less intrusive and feed that into Crossrail. TfL also don’t appear to have given the light rail option much consideration or at least what potential it offers across a wider area in what we used to call the Thames Gateway area when I worked on infrastructure and housing here.
I agree, I personally think a tram (or articulated BRT *branded* as a tram) would be a much more practical mode to get people onto the Elizabeth line. In the report a cross-river tram is only tested as far as Gallion’s Reach – if it instead took over the DLR to Beckton and continued (at grade) to new platforms at Custom House, and at the other end continued to Woolwich/Abbey Wood, you would cut journey times more than the DLR would, while significantly improving connectivity to west and east Thamesmead. Such a system would also work much better extending to Barking/Belvedere. The only long term argument I can see for DLR is to imagine Beckton Riverside and Thamesmead as developed as Pontoon Dock will be in 10 years (i.e. very busy), and that train for train 15tph on DLR beats e.g. 15tph on a BRT/tram. You could of course up the tph on a properly segregated tram network. But would we even get 15tph on the DLR when it’s already splitting at Beckton?
Shame that the evaluation to run a DLR extension along the centre of the A2 to Eltham and beyond was not proceeded with some 20 yrs ago. The area badly needs this
I understand not wanting to add additional spurs to Tube & rail services, but isn’t this exactly what’s going to happen with the DLR if we take the extension off from Gallons Reach? Or is the plan for trains to enter and reverse out of Beckton to maintain some semblance of a through service?
I think this route has always only had a single pattern (to Tower) – especially off peak – but could likely stand up a second pattern.
Since it opened, of course – the area has boomed in population and then there was Crossrail. Canning Town being another feeder/hub.
Only Beckton station itself might see a peak decrease?
Even shuttles to Custom House (build a bay there for alternating services?) – would be a reasonable solve but Stratford Int branch can take more too – it’s all automated and none of this route contends with the Bank frequencies.
Surprised that a aerial cable hauled solution scored poorly.
I wouldn’t expect the same solution as the IFS cloud (formerly Emirates) Dangleway (small 8 unit pods), more like a traditional 2 cabin cable car running on a 5 minute schedule at peak and 20 off peak (carrying 100-200 people per car, potentially double decker). Rosevent Island in New York City, or something more alpine.
If greater capacity is needed, alsong with abliity to operate in higher winds, then multi-cable pod solution (20+ person standing/sitting pods) would be an option–the example I am thiunking of is the “DMC” high capacity pod lift in Alpes D’Huez in France, which can uplift at a greater capacity per hour than a DLR train, although would be a slower transit time.
Poor old Thamesmead. I remember seeing swan-laden ads for it on the tube as late as the early 80s. Stunningly-scaled (60,000-100,000 residents, equivalent to a town or borough, were envisaged) to rehouse people on 1,100 acres of marshland near the Royal Arsenal, effectively a New Town. Water was its raison d’etre and downfall; the flood risk meant overhead walkways and ground level garages or nothing. The space-age medical centre on pilotis on the lakeside was cool but the lack of public transport, or shops, a reluctance to move and spiralling costs of remediation led to a scaling down (the shopping centre, marina, train station and Thames bridge were all scrapped). Some walkways were demolished and garages infilled. Current population about 35,000…